I've always been fascinated by the people who are able to dance while playing the violin. The musician's energy, all the skills needed... It's really beautiful to see and to ear.

I therefore decided to make an illustration out of that, just for me (and for you. and to get better. not so just for me, then... ;p). As you might guess, it took a bit of time to do it, but there it is, just finished :

It was soooo fun :D

And kinda complicated : dynamic characters (still working on the illusion of movement), bright light coming from behind them, night scene, campfire... But the more detailed, the funnier to color and to draw !

The characters and the fire are made using alcohol markers, but for the nice gradient on the back I had to use GIMP, my beloved friend <3 Then I figured ou that a fire is better with actual logs under it, so I quickly added them in digital painting. :p

Aren't they cute, looking furtively at each other while dancing ? <3

Of course, to draw all that, I needed references. First, count a dozen pictures of me standing in weird poses in front of my bathroom mirror, to have the right poses to reproduce x) But beside it, what I had in mind while drawing was a scene from a french comic, Lanfeust de Troy, where two characters scrap next to a fire. Here's a few pictures of it :

I loved the gradients on the background and the bright contrast between shadows and light on the characters, but it was sooo hard to draw, I was afraid of screwing the whole thing up between each stroke of marker ! But it turned out pretty well ;)

I'll try to make a nice backgroud on the original one (on the paper), but I don't know how to do it... I'll get back soon (in the middle of may!) with looooots of new articles when I'll (FINALLY) be on holiday !

This summer, Melsaan made me discover a book that entered directly in my top 10. A Darker Shade of Magic. Think parallel worlds, think enchanted artefacts, think victorian era... And you already have a very interesting situation. Then add engaging characters, bursting with vitality, and you will understand why I love this book so much.

But I am not here to write book reviews, but rather to tell you untiringly about my new artistic experiences.

So, after finishing the two first books, I was kinda messed up by this universe, totally in love, and so I grabbed my pencils and started a Fan Art. And what a Fan Art ! It took me a lot of time, because I really wanted to pay homage to the characters.

But eventually, a few days ago, I finished it ! I am therefore able to reveal it to you...

TA-DAAAAH !

So here are Kell and Lila, the two main characters, forming a rather explosive duet ! I think that drawing fanarts is the most difficult discipli ever, since you know that if you screw this up, you won't just have screwed this up, but you will ALSO have soiled the memory of the characters ! (Me ? Dramatic ? Naaaah) So I really focused on everything, I re-drawed their position 12745 times, made three color trials before actually coloring Kell's hair, I had to make a violent effort to stop myself from shaking like hell when I inked the faces... (Yeah, I was far too emotionally invested in that project ^^' )

Melsaan, on her side, drawed an awesome version of Lila, and it is actually this fanart that made me want to read the book. It's a sketch that would totally deserve a proper inking/coloring, but Melsaan prefers sketching rather than drawing very big, colored artworks.

"Delilah Bard lived by a simple rule : what was worth having, was worth taking"

In my opinion, Melsaan succeded very well in catching Lila's essence. It's a sharp and mischievious character, who, despite her savage look, has big dreams and is ready to fight to acomplish them. I like the aura that emanates from her in the drawing, this defying look ! And, as usual, I'm a huge fan of Melsaan's art.

So here is (for the moment) our humble contribution to the Shades of Magic fandom, that we highly encourage you to discover !

And here are more ideas of patterns, colors and combinations to inspire you !

Well, the pictures don't have a very good definition because it is hard to take photos of hair wraps, due to the fact that the camera doesn't understand that we'd like to focus on the hair wrap rather than on the person who wears it ^^

The two in the middle are twins : they're made with the same colors. :)

Come on, let's continue the Happy families report, since Melsaan came home a few days ago. We finished three new cards : the second version of Harry and Hermione (from the Harry potter family, thanks captain obvious), aaaaaand.... *drumrolls* Augustus Waters !

Harry is on a broomstick once again, but this time he looks older (4-5th year), and he's on a Quidditch match. For this card, I had to use a reference picture because his position was too hard to draw properly. To me, I missed his face a bit. Melsaan keeps hitting me every time I say so. Maybe I'll fix it with my graphic tab when I have the time. But anyway, we can see a clear evolution between the two cards : very detailed background, the folds in the fabric, the hair, the perspective... I'm rather proud of myself. :)

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Melsaan have been in charge of Hermione once again. This time reading in the library, she looks very determined and Melsaan, who read the whole saga once again, insisted on her little stubborn look and on her bushy hair. Her fan art is therefore closer to the books than the movies. We can even see a SPEW pin on her chest, and SPEW is a club she creates in the third book, but which is never mentioned in the movies. Notice that the title of the book she reads, History of Hogwarts, ends in a curious mess because of lack of place to write it. ^^ I like the background she made, with his warm colors and his flying books...

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And here's been a big challenge for Melsaan : drawing Augustus Waters. Because I missed it once before, because he had to be handsome and cute, because she had to draw his lovely crooked smile... So first, we spent about 10 minutes choosing the scene she would draw. Then, she started, helping herself with a photography from the movie. And I think it's very well done. First, the draw itself, but also the coloring part (look at this leather jacket !) and the background once again... Everything is cool and beautiful.

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During this time, I spent a lot of time drawing and inking Alice's second version (yes, the one who keeps ending up in Wonderland). I drawed her on the same dress, but with a super cool background, and I took a small liberty : the card is entirely inspired of the Tim Burton's movies, but she is looking at a butterfly-brioche who's from the first Disney movie.

I had to thicken the character's edges a bit, so it would be detached from the background. I usually don't ink the background, but this time I felt like it would be better because I made a lot of details.

During coloring, I tried to insist on her eyes, like the makeup they made to the actress. This is where I stopped for this time. I think she looks a bit like Daeneyris, don't you ?